Nobody's Fool
by Summer Gambit
Summary: Elizabeth might have found the "key" to safe her guest. Roxas might have finally found a life of his own. [Persona 3 and Kingdom Hearts Crossover]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I promise the following chapters will be longer. I just wanted to have the general storyline established.**

 **Prologue: A deal with the Elevator Attendant**

Roxas needed to lean against the wall. The fight with Axel really took it out of him. Number thirteen might have been able to surprise number 7 with his two Keyblades, but nevertheless, Axel had way more fighting experience and most likely held back, besides the "special effects". Roxas had gone on enough missions to know, when his friend wasn't giving his best.

" _Nobody would miss me."_

" _THAT'S NOT TRUE! I would…"_

The words echoed through the nobody's mind. Axel would miss him. It had sounded so genuine at the time. Yet nobodies were incapable of having any kind of feelings. They were able to mimic them, using the memories of their former lives. But was it true? Because right at this moment, Roxas felt a burning anger inside of him. He was angry at the organization for betraying, he was angry that he and Axel were forced to fight to the death, he was angry at Riku and the guy in red for trapping him in the virtual reality, for beating him, when he was about to get his revenge (in Riku's case mind you) and for...for…

"What the…?"

Something wet was running down his face. Raising his hand, he rubbed the what seemed to be water, away.

"A tear?" he asked in wonder. "But why…? Why do I feel so…...sad?"

It was like there was something missing. Something he should remember, but he wasn't able to grasp it with his mind. I felt familiar, it somehow brought joy to his mind, just thinking about...what exactly? What was missing?

"Tch, my head is probably messed up from them messing with my memories." number 13 sighed, resigned.

With an empty feeling, the boy finally resumed his way to where he would meet his counterpart for the first and most likely last time. Walking through the corridor, he found Donald and Goofy sleeping in what appeared to be closed, glass made flowers. Only a ew more steps. He could already make out the thing Sora was sleeping in. The next room was greatly illuminated. However, before the former Organization member could make his way to the final room, he could hear the sound of glass shattering from where he came from. Thinking another group of lesser nobodies made their way into the secret laboratory, he summoned his Keyblades and slowly made his way back into the previous room, expecting an ambush at any time. It never came.

At first glance, nothing in the room had changed. There actually wasn't anything inside even resembling glass in the slightest way. Looking more carefully, Roxas could make out a blue glowing door. It was hard to see, but definitely hadn't been there before.

"Huh? What's going on now?"

The boy walked in front of the door and inspected it from top to bottom.

 _Is this another trick from the red guy? DiZ was his name, wasn't it?_

 _...No, can't be him. But it doesn't look like something the organization would do_

 _Ah, who cares? What do I have to lose at this point?_

Hesitating no longer, Roxas opened the door and stepped inside.

The room he found himself in, appeared to be an elevator that wasn't moving. A huge golden clock hung high above on the opposite side of him. The rest of the room was decorated in blue. Two rows of doors were lined up to the nobody's left and right. In front of him was a chair, a table with a white tablecloth and at the very end of the room was a couch, on which a woman was sitting on.

"Welcome to Velvet Room." The woman greeted him with a smiled. She wore a blue (what else) elevator attendant outfit, had short, platinum blond hair, an overall pale skin and what stuck out the most, were her yellow eyes.

"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter."

 _Great._ Roxas thought with a deadpan. _Just what I needed. A mysterious woman who speaks in riddles. Let's see where this will go._

"Please take a seat."

Following the invitation, Roxas placed himself on the empty chair, with his hands on his lap.

"My name is Elizabeth. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Roxas."

"What do you want from me?"

The woman, Elizabeth, didn't seem fazed by his outburst at all. Her smile never left her face, which caused the nobody to mentally raise an eyebrow, but from the outside he remained stoic. His entire life one guy or the other wanted something from him. So why should it be any different this time?

"I am in need of your services as a Keyblade Master." Elizabeth dropped the formalities and cut straight to the chase.

"My services, huh?" Roxas asked, not impressed.

"Indeed." the woman nodded. "I understand you are most likely less inclined to accept my request, given your life so far, but please, at the very least hear me out."

 _Given my life so far? Did this woman watch me from the moment I was born? Now here's a creepy thought. I guess I should gather information._

Roxas simply nodded.

"Thank you." Elizabeth smiled seemed to brighten just a little.

"You see, we, the attendances of the Velvet Room, only accept guests who have signed a contract. As you might guess, I am bending the rules a little, since you obviously never signed such a contract."

"Uhh...I don't remember ever signing anything." Roxas replied, more than a little confused. This caused Elizabeth to giggle.

"The role of the attendances, is it to guide our guests on their journey with various tasks. In a few weeks, this room is expecting yet another guest."

Suddenly the smile on Elizabeth's face dropped and she looked down on her own lap.

"However…" she hesitated a second "I am afraid this time the journey will proof itself to be...more difficult than the others."

"More difficult? You know, it would really help, if you stop speaking in riddles and just tell me what's going on." Roxas said, annoyed.

"The foe our guest will go against is one of the most powerful in the universe." Elizabeth said with a serious expression. "As much as I wish, I am not allowed to help our guest out in a more direct manner other than going after my duties in this room."

"Why not?" _Wish what those duties are she's talking about. Something tells me, she's not going to say a word about them._

"It's...complicated. I have no problem leaving this room, however the others would stop me before I even have the chance to deal a single blow."

Despite Elizabeth's demeanor being controlled, the nobody could tell that this was really frustrating the woman in front of him. He briefly wondered if she and her...colleagues had some sort of argument.

"So, you want me to help him or her instead?" Roxas guessed.

And just like that Elizabeth's smile returned.

"Indeed. I wish you to watch over the guest and help our guest, whenever it is necessary."

"Okay, sounds nice and all. But why should I help you? You claim to have "watched" me. How do I know you're not going to betray me like everyone else?" Roxas asked, leaning forward in his chair.

"As for your last question, I cannot give you any guarantee. You just will have to trust me."

 _Uh huh._

"As for your reward, I am able to provide you with a place to live in a new world."

"Hold up." Roxas raised his arm. "You know that a lot of people have certain interests in me. They'll just follow me to any world I go, you know? Sooner or later they'll find me."

At that, Elizabeth smiled slyly. "Ah, yes. You see, you won't just travel to another world, but an entirely different dimension."

"And how is that different?" the nobody asked.

"Simple. There exist many worlds in a dimension. However, the world I plan to bring you to, exists in an entirely different dimension. As far as I know, nobody neither in this or in the other dimension has found a way to cross the barriers. Aside from the residence of this room of course."

"That sounds way too convenient." Roxas commented.

Elizabeth seemed unfazed. "Now, where was I? Ah, yes. As I said, I can provide you with a residence, as well as sufficient funding for your own expenses. I will also provide you with a legal identity and enlist you to a local school."

"A school?"

"Well, you at least appear to be at the age, humans would go to school. People would start asking questions, if you don't appear to be the norm."

 _I guess that's one way of putting it._

"Sounds nice and all, but I still don't see any reason to help you." Roxas said, ready to go.

"Let me ask you a question then: what do you have to lose?" Elizabeth asked.

 _Did she…? No, must be a coincidence._

"The Organization betrayed you, your friends turned out to be nothing more than dara. If you leave this room you can either face the Organization XIII and end up overwhelmed by them or go and merge with Sora. But what do you owe this boy? You two never even met. Besides, he handled himself very well after you were born. DiZ only wants him to be the ultimate weapon against the Organization. Although I do not know his motives, it is pretty obvious he has some kind of grudge against them. And you."

 _Someone has done her homework. I don't really trust her, but...she's right. What was I thinking anyway? Merging with Sora, so I could...what exactly? This is still fishy and I should keep an eye on her, but yeah. She's right. Screw the Organization, screw DiZ and Riku. Sora can manage on his own._

Roxas stood up, summoning his Keyblades in both hands.

"Let me tell you one thing." He held out one of his swords. "If I find out that you betray me, I'll kill you."

Elizabeth nodded, her face serious once again.

"It is a deal."

All of the sudden, the whole room rumbled and the elevator started moving down. For a moment Roxas lost his footing, before catching himself.

"What's going on?!"

"We're travelling." Elizabeth said simply, standing up from the couch. She had a bright smile on her face yet again, only this one appeared to be the brightest as of today.

"You have my deepest thanks, Roxas."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1: New Home**

Roxas wasn't sure what he just got himself into. The past ten minutes he had been reflecting over what happened to him until recently. It all started, when he went up against Xemnas or at least planned on doing so. However that bastard Riku got in his way and ultimately defeated him. What followed was spending an entire week inside a virtual city of which he thought he had been living for his entire life. Heck, Naminé had been so thorough with giving him fake memories, she even made up parents for him. Up until this point he had nothing against the girl, but now?

He shook his head. There it was once again. Anger. He was angry at Naminé. Not as much as at Riku or even worse, DiZ, but still angry. Nobodies were supposed to have no emotion. But then again, he had already started doubting that last fact before he even arrived in the fake Twilight Town.

 _Now that I think about it...Axel always seemed like he was having lots of fun. Why would he fake that the entire time, if he wasn't really having fun? Larxene...well I don't remember her that well, but she got annoyed pretty fast, especially when Demyx started to play on his guitar. Speaking of him, his laziness must have come from somewhere…_

Roxas was pulled out from his train of thought, when Elizabeth stepped out of one of the doors. The nobody had no idea where exactly they led or how it came that they let anywhere at all, considering they weren't attached to a wall. But he had seen weirder things in his life. The elevator attendant held a rather huge package in her arms. After the door closed behind her, she placed it on the ground and opened it.

"Now then, as I promised" she grabbed into the thing and took out an envelope. "This here contains a birth certificate, an identification card, a passport and your enlist papers for a school called Gekkougan High."

She placed it on the table.

"I suggest you go through them, when you arrive at your place of residence."

Roxas nodded understanding. Just to be sure, he opened the envelope and overlooked its contents. So far so good.

"Next, this one was a little harder to get." With both arms Elizabeth went inside and took out an all too familiar looking cloak.

"Where did you get this?" Roxas asked surprised.

"Oh after seeing you all running around in those things, I simply had to get one of those for me. Plus I thought your old cloak might come in handy for you, in case you don't want anybody to see your face."

The nobody could see the reasoning behind this. Another added bonus was that the cloak protected him, when walking through a corridor of darkness. So in case he needed a quick escape, he now was able to do so without endangering himself.

"Also take this." From her pocket, Elizabeth took out what appeared to be a simple silver necklace with nothing attached to it. Just a simple silver chain, easy to overlook.

"Try it on. I'm sure you'll find it's effects…quite stunning."

Raising an eyebrow, Roxas took the shiny object and fiddled a little with the accessoir, until he finally managed to open it. He put it around his neck, yet nothing happened.

" **What's it supposed to- whoa! What's with my voice?!"**

The boy's voice sounded completely off, as if it was coming out of some broken speakers. Elizabeth giggled at the nobody's surprise.

"Quite the charming necklace, isn't it? It allows you to speak with others, even when wearing the cloak. No one will be able to identify you, in case you meet someone again not wearing the cloak."

"You're going through a lot of expenses, just for me." Roxas noted, taking the thing off already. "It doesn't make you look any better."

"I simply do not wish for you to fail at your task." Elizabeth replied off handedly. "You will need every advantage you can get if I want you to succeed. Also, I won't be able to help you anymore, after we part ways."

The woman sighed.

"The others will notice that I broke the rules. Do not worry. They won't go after you. However, they will prevent me from going anywhere outside this room for quite some time I assume."

The former Organization member took another good look at the woman in front of him, but her constant smiling made it hard for him to read her. He couldn't tell whether she was genuine about what she said or if she was having an ulterior motive.

"I still don't trust you."

"I don't expect you to do. Trust is something one has to earn. Now, what else is left? Of course. I promised you to cover your own expenses after all. I should mention the world we're going to has a completely different currency. In fact, depending on the country of the world you're in, the currency changes."

"That sounds unnecessary complicated." Roxas commented dryly. Where exactly were they heading anyway? Before he could voice the question, the attendant had taken out about 20 or so suitcases. Opening one of them, it revealed being filled with bundles of colored papers.

"The currency they're using Japan is called "Yen". There are different types of bills and coins…"

And thus started the very, very long explanation of the Japan currency, how some currencies are somehow worth more than others, exchange courses, what the numbers mean…

Roxas was sure he fell asleep at one point. It was just so **boring.**

The nobody was shaken awake, when all of the sudden the elevator rumbled and completely came to a standstill.

"We have arrived at our destination." Elizabeth explained calmly. She had stuffed everything back into the package and was now carrying it in her arms.

"Would you kindly open the door for me?"

"...Sure." Roxas said, a little uncertain. He did as he was told and waited for the woman to step outside. As soon as she did, he followed her. A couple of moments later, Roxas found himself in what appeared to be the living room of a rather huge apartment. He could already see there was a kitchen, which looked like it had the necessities he would need to make some food. Although he never really cooked in his life. There was a hallway, which led to a door that looked like it led to the staircase of the entire house.

"Welcome to your apartment." Elizabeth explained, having put the package on the ground. "It is equipped with all necessary equipment. You can add your own personal touch to it, if you want. This apartment features a balcony, this living room, a bedroom, guest room, a storage room, a bathroom and even has it's own garage. Though I doubt you'll be using your place downstairs, since officially and literally you're not allowed to have a driver's license."

Elizabeth giggled over her own joke, to which Roxas could only roll his eyes. Yeah, he knew. In Twilight town you needed to be 18 to get license. Strange as it was, Naminé's fake memories might come in handy for this. She gave her a basic understanding on having a normal life.

"The keys to your apartment are in the kitchen on the table. If you would please follow me, there is one final thing I need to show you. Elizabeth walked out to the balcony, from where you had an overall view of the city. Roxas followed her, playing with the thought of pushing her over, before she could do anything to him. But he dismissed the idea pretty quickly.

"This is Iwatodai." the attendant spoke as soon as the nobody was outside. "Your school is down at this island. You'll only be able to get there via the train."

Elizabeth pointed with her gloved hand on the island. And indeed, Roxas could see a railroad going there.

"Right now, there are still two weeks of vacation left, but there are some teachers working at the school during the day. You'll need to go there before school starts to finalize your attendance."

"It looks beautiful." Roxas commented viewing the city.

"Indeed." Elizabeth commented. "It's almost midnight…"

Suddenly the world came to a stop. The lights went out on every street, even Roxas own apartment, the smell of blood entered his nose and there was an eerie green light everywhere. To top it all of, where the school used to be, now grew a gigantic tower!

"What the hell?! What is going on?!" Roxas shouted.

"This, is the dark hour." Elizabeth's voice has lost all it's cheerfulness. "A hidden hour, most people don't experience. They will be turned into coffins, in this time of the day."

"Coffins?!" Roxas exclaimed. "Sounds straight out of Halloween Town…" he grumbled.

Elizabeth continued. "Monsters, called shadows, roam the city during this time, attacking people who are not inside a coffin. Only few are capable of experiencing this time. From those people, even fewer are capable of using a power called persona."

"Persona?" Roxas asked, calming down a little.

"You'll see in time. You have probably noticed the tower, where the school used to be."

"Oh yes, what's up with that?" the nobody gestured at the thing.

"It's called Tartarus. The labyrinth in which the shadows reside. They will attack you on sight and are merciless enemies. Be careful when exploring the tower."

Elizabeth turned towards Roxas and took out a white envelope from her pocket. "Here are some final instructions for your task. They contain a description of every current persona user in the city and the guest who will arrive in about two weeks. I would explain this to you myself, but I am afraid my time is up. Good luck, Roxas."

Out of nowhere the woman gave Roxas a bone crushing hug, causing the nobody to blush a little. "And thank you."

As soon as it came, the hug ended. Elizabeth walked back inside and opened the blue door. She turned to the nobody one final time, waving with her hand and smiled her signature smile. A single tear fell down from her face, before the door closed, disappearing a second later.

Completely alone, Roxas continued to stare after the woman for a minute or two, before he let out a sigh.

"Well, things definitely took a turn for the weirdness." Was that even grammatically correct? He didn't care, he was way too tired to think.

"Let's see what the bed has to offer. I hope none of those shadows can come inside and catch me off guard, while I'm resting."

 **XIII-XIII-XIII**

The next morning, Roxas woke up as soon as the first rays of sunshine hit his face. Yawning he needed a couple of seconds to realize that he wasn't Twilight Town anymore. His room was empty, with the exception of a mirror and a closet. The closet only contained of what appeared to be school uniforms. "Definitely need to get some clothes."

His rumbling stomach also told him that he needed to buy some groceries. He realized that he would most likely spend his first day looking for stores and buying stuff for his apartment. The whole idea of having an own apartment sounded so surreal, now that he actually thought about it. Then he remembered, he already had once lived in an apartment. Even if it was a fake one…

Shaking those thoughts away, Roxas quickly got dressed, took out some money from one of the suitcases, found the keys in the kitchen (did he really needed so many cupboards?) and walked outside. As it turned out, he was living at the top floor, so he used the elevator to get down.

The air outside was really fresh. People were already walking on the streets, more than Roxas had ever seen in one place. Normally he only saw Heartless in those numbers.

"This will take some getting used to…"

 **XIII-XIII-XIII**

Roxas had been walking for hours, getting a general idea of the layout of the block he was living in. He noticed that people appeared to be not as open as he had seen people interact in various other worlds. The people here minded more their own business and tended to ignore each other most of the time. It got really weird, when he encountered a woman, who looked like she belonged into bed. Her skin had become completely pale, her eyes were unfocused and she was mumbling one thing over and over again. "She's coming …she's coming …"

Luckily he found himself at a place called the Paulownia Mall. A variety of shops could be found here, one of which being a café. The nobody managed to get breakfast at the place, which he enjoyed to a great deal. Roxas also used the time to reflect upon his past one more time.

 _That time at the Colosseum, I think it was the first time I clearly remembered one of Sora's memories. The two of us actually fought that Heartless the same way. We even got hit at the exact same time, made the same mistakes...urrgh, don't think about it. I should really stop thinking about the past at all and start getting settled in. I also need to read those "final instructions" and maybe see what these shadows here are capable off. Oh yeah, also need to report at the school. I think I'll do that tomorrow._

After finishing his breakfast and paying the waitress, the nobody started his shopping spree, which took most of the day to complete. The rest of the day was spent walking around the streets like an idiot, while trying to find the place he lived in again.

 **XIII-XIII-XIII**

Meanwhile elsewhere…

Diz and "Ansem" looked at the video footage for what must have been the hundredth time of the day, yet they still couldn't find their answer. Namely on how the nobody managed to get away, despite DiZ taking arrangements that no corridor of darkness could be opened.

The footage showed Roxas going to Sora, as planned, but then all of the sudden it appeared something caught the nobody's attention. He even summoned his two keyblades and carefully approached the previous room, as if he expected to be attacked by an enemy. In the other room he looked around a little, then approached a certain spot and started to stare into space. After fifteen minutes the nobody then disappeared in a blue flash. Just like that.

"Maybe he saw something, only he could see." "Ansem" suggested. "Or it simply was something, the cameras couldn't catch."

"Hmph. I suppose it is possible." DiZ acknowledged the suggestions, even if a little reluctantly.

"Staring at the screen all day won't get us anywhere. Naminé." DiZ turned around in his chair. The other nobody sat in her own chair, having watched the cameras as well.

"Is there any way you can track Roxas, like you could before?"

Kairi's shadow shook her head, sadly. "I have been trying this entire time, but I just can't find a trace of him anywhere. He must be on another world. Maybe he had help from the outside?" the girl suggested.

"Also plausible." DiZ nodded. "So far, Sora has been able to handle himself, considering the circumstances."

"I will examine the laboratory. Maybe I can find something." The cloaked figure disappeared in a corridor of darkness, leaving the other two to their own.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2 School, the source of all evil**

Once again Roxas was woken up by the evil sunlight hitting his face. He made a mental note to close the blinds this evening. Groaning, Roxas got up and got ready for the day. He wasn't much of a cook really, but even the Organization HQ had a toaster and a coffee machine. The nobody also made an effort to read the "last instructions", from the one who hired him. There were some interesting things written there.(*1)

After getting his breakfast down, he walked outside and hoped not to get lost again, like the day before. Luckily he had a good memory, so he should remember the way to the train station.

The weather was a little chilly outside, so additionally to his usual attire, he also wore a jacket. The day before had been okay with the temperature, but just by looking at the incoming clouds, he didn't took his chances.

Finding the train station wasn't all that hard, since there were. He didn't notice them the other day, since he had been so busy viewing the actual city and getting used to the situation. He still wasn't quite used to all of this. He expected heartless or nobodies to jump at him at any moment, as soon as he left his apartment, because that had been the norm for him for almost his entire life. So far he managed not to summon his keyblades and slash random people who were just going on about their business.

The train ride turned out to be exciting. It lead over a bridge between the little island the school was located and the main land. You had a great view from there on and it almost felt like he was flying again. Still, it was no comparison to Neverland.

When Roxas arrived on the school grounds, he was surprised to see a few other students walking out of the building. But then he reminded himself that there were probably others who either enrolled this year too or had other business with the school. Although only hearing about them, the nobody recognized the cherry trees standing on each side of the path leading to the main building. It looked like the flowers on the trees were about to blossom.

Inside, the boy needed to stop and think for a few seconds, before he remembered where he had to go. Naminé implemented a lot of memories into his mind, however it was obvious that it was supposed to be only for a short time. The few times Roxas actively tried to call them up, he found it troubling to do so, as in it took a few seconds before they surfaced.

The thought of Naminé and her manipulation of his mind brought back his anger. He swallowed it, before knocking at the faculty office door. No need to make a bad first impression after all.

"Come in!" called a female was from the inside.

Opening the door, Roxas found a room that was filled with desk, a little kitchen in the corner and a lot of computers. He resisted the urge to smash them all. Barely. Instead he focused on the sole other person inside. She looked pretty young, about her late twenties, early thirties. She wore a white turtleneck-like collar shirt, a brown faculty work jacket, brown pants, and black high heel shoes. Her hair was light brown, which reached her neck and her eyes were a dark grey.

"Can I help you somehow?" the woman asked.

"I'm Roxas. Roxas Kūgeki(*2)."

"Kūgeki, Kūgeki…" the teacher grabbed a paper from one of the desks. "Ah, here we go Roxas Kūgeki. Yes, your aunt registered you this year."

Roxas was confused for a few seconds, before he got an idea of who that supposed aunt might be.

"Excuse me if I'm a little bit scatter brained at the moment. I'm jumping in for a colleague, who has gotten sick. You're in eleventh grade and in 2-F. That's my class. Oh! I haven't introduced myself as of yet, have I?" The woman chuckled embarrassed, to which Roxas only smiled.

"I'm Miss Toriumi. I teach Composition."

"It's nice to meet you." Roxas said back.

Ms. Toriumi nodded. "Now then, there's only a little form you'll need to sign and we're done here. Please go over it though and check if there's not a mistake somewhere. It happens rarely, but better safe than sorry."

The nobody took the form the teacher handed over to him. He looked it over and found it matched everything Elizabeth had organized for him. His age, 18, gender, parents overseas, him only being in 11th grade, due to a "sickness", which kept him from doing much, aside from lying in a hospital. It was even the cause of why he looked so young. Roxas doubted that any such sickness exists.

Signing the official document, Roxas handed it back to Toriumi, who simply placed it back on the desk.

"Well then Roxas. I'm looking forward to being your teacher this year. I hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation."

"Thank you, miss. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

 **XIII-XIII-XIII-XIII**

Having nothing better to do, Roxas took another stroll around the town, this time going to a place called the "Strip Mall". It consisted mostly of one gigantic building featuring a wide variety of shops and restaurants. The thing that caught his eye, or rather his nose, was the Hagakure Ramen, which at this time of the day, just opened. Since it was only an hour until lunchtime, Roxas decided to have it early.

Inside were only two men standing behind the counter talking.

"Hmm? Hehe, we rarely get customers this early. What can we get ya?" one of the man asked casually.

Roxas took a place directly in front of the counter. "It's actually my first time here. I'll take a look at the menu first, okay?"

"Sure. Take your time." the man replied and continued his conversation with his colleague. "So next thing I know, the poor girl trips and-"

The officially young adult tuned out the conversation of the other two. Something about the daughter of one just learning to walk. Instead he focused on the menu he was given, which only served to confuse him. In the Organization you had either pre-made food out of cans or you bought or cooked yourself something else. Number 13 never saw the problem with the canned food. Heck, the only thing that was not canned that he ate was ice cream. To top it off, the stuff that was written here was written in a foreign language! How did he NOT notice this earlier?! He had been in this world for more than a day and reading signs, papers, all sorts of stuff and never noticed that the letters were heavily different to what he was used to?! How could he read these things in the first place?!

 _I know I can read things in general because of Sora, but this? Unless Sora learned this language here by pure chance, the only thing I can think of is that Elizabeth did something, so I can read this._

Seeing as everything was new to him, he just took the thing from the top of the menu: ramen. After he gave his order, one of the man walked a little to the back and started cooking. Roxas in the meantime sat idly in his chair and watched the cook do his job. Until suddenly the door opened and another customer walked in. The nobody briefly glanced over to the newcomer, who didn't look that outstanding. The only noticeable feature he had was his baseball cap.

"One time the special!" The boy announced cheerfully, slamming some kind of ticket on the counter. He also placed himself right next to Roxas, although literally every other seat was empty.

"Hey, what's up?" The cap wearing guy greeted Roxas.

"Not much." replied the nobody.

"Haven't seen you around here. You new here?"

Roxas nodded. "I just moved in yesterday. The name's Roxas."

"I'm Junpei. Junpei Iori. You don't look like ya from Japan." the now dubbed Junpei pointed out.

"I'm from overseas. Had some trouble with the other students in my last school." Roxas lied with ease. He just replaced the words "colleagues" and "organization" with "students" and "school".

"Uh huh. Welp, welcome to Port Island. You're not enrolling Gekkougan by any chance, are ya?"

At this, Roxas looked over to Junpei. "Actually yes, I am."

"Sweet. That means we're going to the same school. I transferred here a couple of years ago too, so I know how tough it is to make new friends." Junpei grinned. "But don't ya worry. Ya already got a new one right here."

"Really? Just like that? You don't even really know me."

"Well, ya look like a nice guy and all. Besides, what's wrong with making some new pals every once in awhile, ya know?" Iori retorted.

"Thanks Junpei." the nobody nodded. Although he himself barely knew Junpei, he seemed really genuine. He had kind of a similar carefree attitude like Sora or Axel for that matter.

"Hey Roxas, have you already visited the arcade?" Junpei asked out of the blue.

"No, not really." the nobody replied. "I have been busy getting some things sorted out."

"But ya got time now, don't ya?" the human pressed.

"I think so."

"Great, then it's decided. We're going to the arcade after this!"

Roxas shrugged in response, not really knowing what to expect.

 **XIII-XIII-XIII-XIII**

As it turned out the Arcade was a place filled with all sorts of video games, billiard tables and a few dartboards. Junpei's favorite game turned out to be something called "Street Fighter 2", a classic as he described it. Roxas stood no chance against his opponent in this game, not even when spamming "Hadokens" all over the screen.

It went similar for other games, except for one, where there was a punching ball attached to a machine, which then would measure the amount of force that was behind the punch. Junpei stood no chance against Roxas.

By the time the two got out, the sun was almost set and the streetlights were on.

"That late already?" Roxas asked.

"Time sure flies, when you're having fun." Junpei agreed.

"Alright then. I think I go home and play some more video games."

"Even more?" the nobody asked slightly aghast. "I think my head hurts a little from staring at all of those screens for so long."

"Whatever man. See you around." Junpei casually waved off.

"See ya." Roxas shouted back, before heading home.

 **XIII-XIII-XIII-XIII**

At home Roxas had nothing to do until midnight and the only thing to do at his home was to watch TV, while eating ice cream. Too bad, he looked into multiple stores, but none of them had any sea salt ice cream. Most likely this world didn't even had the recipe. Instead he was now eating some orange cream, while on TV they showed something that was called "anime". At the moment some half naked woman was fighting some kind of monster with blood spraying anywhere.

The nobody could only shake his head. He knew the show wasn't real, but at least they could have designed the female characters wearing some kind of protection. Even his cloak had some defensive abilities to it.

He decided to switch channels. The TV screen now showed a documentary about whales, local animal that lived in the seas of this world. At least this was interesting. And he got a chance to see the beach, even if it was just through a screen.

Time passed as he stuffed himself with ice cream and watched TV, until it was 11:45. Roxas turned off the TV and walked into his room, to change into his cloak. He almost forgot the little silver chain, in case he met those "persona users". Five minutes later, he stretched out his gloved hand and focused on the darkness inside of him. Like it did so often before, a dark portal opened in front of him.

After stepping through it, he found himself immediately in front of the school. There were still a couple of minutes left, so he checked his pockets. There were still some potions and aethers left from the fight with Riku, as well as the few potions he found in the mansion, back in Twilight Town.

Satisfied, the cloaked nobody just needed to wait for the Dark Hour to start.

With fascination, Roxas stared at the tower growing in front of him. It looked pretty cool, he admitted that much. Although, now that the nobody was up and close to the supposed nest of shadows, he was getting a bad vibe out of the building. Summoning his keyblades, he went inside.

The lobby of Tartarus was interesting to say the least. So far none of the shadows decided to attack him and according to the final instructions, this place was normally safe from the monsters inside this tower. The lobby itself contained a staircase leading up to a clock, which was the entrance of the tower, a green machine, which Elizabeth described as a teleporter. In order to get out of the tower, he'd need to find one of those inside. Or jump out of a window. Next to the staircase was a clock, which was capable of healing you in exchange of money and finally there was a door on the far end of the lobby. According to Elizabeth the shadows behind this door were by far the strongest in the tower and advised to not open the door on his first day in the tower.

Instead of going against the instructions, the nobody walked up the stairs and entered the first block.

Immediately Roxas found himself in a small corridor, which let into a junction just up ahead. Looking behind him, he found that the door was gone completely, replaced by a wall. His blades ready, the nobody began his journey into the tower. It didn't take long for him to find the first few blob like things. They reminded him of shades, only those were bigger, had no legs and wore each a mask. As soon as those "blob shadows" noticed him they quickly crawled his way, their arms extended, ready to slash him into pieces. Roxas ran up to them and slashed each of them once. The shadows disappeared in a black mist, leaving no trace of ever being there behind.

" **That was all?"** the nobody asked surprised. He forgot the chain again.

 _The letter did say that the shadows grow stronger, the further I go. If those are really like the shade heartless, then it's no wonder they don't put up much of a fight._

Walking deeper into the labyrinth, in a corner the boy found a suitcase, similar to the ones Elizabeth gave him. Looking inside, he found a few yen bills. He was about to wonder what the money was doing there, when he heard a sound behind him. Instinctively he rolled to the side and turned around. One of those blob shadows struck the ground where Roxas had been just a moment ago. However, the shadow was not alone. There was another small shadow, floating in mid-air with a book above his head, which was spinning. The book spun faster all of the sudden, followed by the shadow shooting an icicle at him. It's aiming needed some serious work, though. The thing hit the ground, without Roxas even moving.

Holding out one of his keyblades, the nobody shot a firaga at his enemies. The resulting explosion got rid of both enemies.

Going from where they came from, Roxas found the staircase to the next level. Once both feet left the stairs, the way was sealed shut.

" **How does that even work? Oh, there are more."**

Three "blobs" and two "books" came his direction, the books already shooting their magic at him. One projectile he managed to block with his keyblades, the other hit him on the shoulder. He didn't even feel the temperature drop, so weak was the blast. Roxas slashed his way through the shadows, cutting them in half again and again.

" **This must have been how it was for the others to train me on my first couple of missions."** The higher nobody mused.

Following a straight path, he found a single shadow, on which he slammed the back of his keyblade against the mask. The room he was now in contained two more suitcases. One had a strange green colored stone inside, the other some strange blue powder inside a plastic back.

Putting the items into his pockets, Roxas went back into exploring the inside of the tower. It got boring pretty fast. The enemies were no match him, the items he found inside the suitcases didn't even seem all that worth it. After the fourth floor brought up a giant beetle as an enemy, which yet again died after one strike, Roxas began looking for the teleporter to the outside. Elizabeth didn't allow him to face the so called guardians anyway, because the elevator attendant feared else her guest wouldn't get enough fighting experience.

He found it with relative ease, now he only needed to find out how to get the thing to work. It took him five minutes to find the button on the strange green, yellow device. The teleport experience was similar to when using the corridor of darkness, only you didn't had to walk through the realm of darkness for this one.

 _Well, at least I know that the guest won't have any trouble with those guys, I hope. Damn it, Elizabeth could have at least told me how he or she looks like. Coming with the last train from Sumaru City (*3). Yeah, very helpful._

After Roxas exited Tartarus, he opened another corridor of darkness and went back into his apartment. He quickly got rid of his cloak and the chain, throwing both onto his bed.

"I'll get out of shape if this is how's gonna be every night." he thought out loud. "Maybe I should have opened that other door. No, it was safer to check out the block with the weaker shadows." he nodded to himself.

He looked over to his bed, planning on getting some rest for the day, yet something felt amiss. Not missing a beat, Roxas went to his ice box. Two minutes later he could be seen sitting on the roof of the house, eating ice cream.

 **A/N: *1 Listing them up would be a bit tedious and not fun to read. I'll reveal them as the story progresses.**

 ***2 Google translator said, that is the Japanese word for "void". I tried nothing, but what came out just sounded so wrong.**

 ***3 The city where Persona 2 takes place, because why the hell not?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3 First encounters**

The following days were pretty much uneventful, what with Roxas still getting used to everything that had transpired, especially his new home. One night he stayed up late until the Dark Hour hit. That night he had decided to go to the roof of the building he was living in and found some shadows lurking on top of it. They almost looked like professional wrestlers. They still were no match for him, but it gave him the idea of patrolling the city from time to time. Who knew what those shadows would do, if left unchecked.

The following day he had nothing special in mind, but met Junpei, who was on his way on watching a movie. Originally he was going with a friend, but said friend had to cancel on the last minute. So with one extra ticket, the cap fetish had invited Roxas.

Two hours of testosterone later…

"Dude, that was one HELL OF A MOVIE!" Junpei shouted.

"Yeah, it was pretty awesome." Roxas agreed. "Though I still don't get why that Yami guy wanted to kill all humans. The movie didn't really explain that."

"Ah, who cares?" Junpei waved off. "What matters most in an action movie is the action and not the story."

"If you say so." Roxas ate the rest of his ice cream and threw the popsicle away. "Hey, what's up with him?" the Nobody pointed towards a man, who seemingly was just staring off into the sky. Junpei looked over to where Roxas was pointing and then shivered.

"Another one, huh?"

"Another one?" Roxas echoed.

"You haven't heard? It's called Apath-somthing syndrome, I forgot." he readjusted his cap. "People on TV say it's 'cause of too much stress, but I think no one really knows. Been happening for some time now. I heard some of them even say things like "The end is coming." Who knows? Maybe some kind of cult is behind all of this."

Roxas frowned but didn't comment on it. He had a pretty good idea where it came from. He just wasn't sure what was worse. Losing your heart and become a heartless or become something like this.

He was thinking about a topic change, when from a nearby alley the two boys heard the scream of a woman.

"Whoa, what was that?" Junpei asked.

"Sounds like someone's in trouble." Roxas ran into the alley, where he heard the sound from.

"Wait! Don't go in there! C-crap!" Junpei had only heard rumors about what kind of people lived in this part of the town, but everyone knew the rumors were true, since it was true for every big city everywhere on the globe. The backstreets of Port Island, filled with the worst kind of humans this city had to offer.

"Damn it! I have to get him out of there!"

Roxas in the meantime had made it to the place where the scream had come from. Two men had corned a woman against a run down building. One of them was holding a knife, the other a baseball bat.

"Don't worry. We're real gentlemen, aren't we?"

"Yeah." the second one agreed. "We'll be real gentle, alright."

Thinking quickly, the nobody grabbed a nearby pipe and took on his one-sword fighting stand.

"Leave her alone!" he shouted.

The woman looked up from her cowering position, her eyes widening upon seeing the seemingly underage teenager. The punks turned around at the same time, blinking at the sight of the boy, trying to play the hero.

"Get lost, kid." one of the guys grunted. "Go home and-"

"Hah!"

"ARGH!"

Roxas had quickly closed the distance between himself and the knife wielder and had started the fight by striking the man on the head. While his opponent was dazed, the boy attacked again, this time in a piercing fashion, hitting the stomach of his opponent. Said opponent dropped the knife and crouched down. Spinning around himself, the nobody used the momentum to strike the man pretty hard on the head. Blood splashed onto Roxas' clothes. At the same time the sound of bone cracking could be heard. The man hit the dirt, unconscious.

"What the-?! Damn you!" Clearly not thinking, the second opponent raised his baseball bat and came running towards the nobody. Roxas parried the strike with ease and then counterattacked. He hit the left cheek, causing the man to fall over. Then he hit the guy again, this time on the back of the head. He followed his friend into dream land.

"D-dude…" Junpei stuttered from his position, having watched it all.

 **XIII-XIII-XIII**

Half an hour later the woman, Roxas and Junpei found themselves inside the police station. The two thugs had been brought to hospital, due to them still not waking up. All three had been interrogated in different rooms. Roxas was interrogated by an officer with the name Kurosawa. The man had so far only asked for what happened and Roxas just finished telling the man the whole story.

"Hmm, I must commend you on your initiative to protect a fellow citizen, but as an police officer, I also have to tell you not to do something so reckless again and just straight up call the police. Although from the way you described it, you're very confident with your weapon skills. Do you do Kendo by any chance?"

Roxas shook his head. "Back in my hometown we had sports called "Struggle". It's a fighting tournament, where each fighter is given a "Struggle Bat", which is made of a soft material in order to avoid serious injuries, but still hard enough to actually hurt."

"Is that so? I have never heard of such a sports."

"I come from a...different country. Plus the town I lived in was relatively small, so it was more of a local thing." Technically it wasn't a lie per se. "Matches are within a small time limit. Each player is given a certain amount of balls they have to keep, while beating the other player, so that he or she loses balls. The one with the most balls at the end of regulations wins. I have participated in a few tournaments and even became first the last one. I also may or may not have been part of one of the bigger street gangs."

 _Can you even call it a street gang?_

"Hmm. Well I can't arrest you for being part of a gang or anything you did outside of Japan anyway. Just be careful. More often than not those guys have guns with them. I advise you to avoid this area of Port Island in the future."

"I understand." the nobody nodded.

"Good." Kurosawa took out a piece of paper. "Just sign this here, so your statement will be official. Also, I must ask of you not to leave the city without telling the police. Chances are you will be summoned to court to testify against those two."

"Alright. I didn't plan on leaving anytime soon anyway." Roxas signed the paper, almost forgetting his new last name and shook the officer's hand. He was then led outside into the main area, where he found Junpei sitting on a chair. When the teen noticed the nobody he jumped upwards and was quickly next to the blond.

"DUDE! You SO have to show me how you did this?" the cap wearing teen didn't notice the police officers looking at him rather disapprovingly. "Where the hell did you learn how to fight like that?!"

"Later alright?" Roxas answered, eyeing the officers. "How about we grab some grub? This whole thing made me hungry. My treat."

Even Junpei couldn't deny the concept of free ramen.

 **XIII-XIII-XIII**

"Huh, something like that was allowed where you're from?" the cap teen asked, between bites of his ramen.

Roxas shrugged. "Yeah. I don't get what the big deal is. Worst that ever happened is some people losing consciousness, but that's part of the fun."

"Dude." Junpei shook his head, amazed. "Part of the fun? I can't really imagine the police being okay with that."

"Well, there were street gangs. We used to beat each other up on multiple occasions and gained some kind of infamous reputations." Roxas shrugged again. "The authorities knew about it, but never did anything, like banning us from the tournaments. I guess they were just glad we weren't slicing each other up with real swords or something."

"Wow. This right there sounds awesome. I gotta visit your place some time."

"Er...if you got the money, why not?"

 _I probably should stop mentioning Twilight Town from now on. It'll only cause problems in the long run._

"Did you live your entire life here in this city?" the nobody asked the somebody.

"Here? Nah. Used to live in Osaka. Nice place to live, but Port Island got a charm of its own, ya know?"

"Not really. I haven't really seen much of Japan." the blonde explained. "But I take your word for it."

 _Honestly, my apartment is more interesting than the Castle that never was._

 **XIII-XIII-XIII**

Back in his apartment, from all of the TV watching, Roxas had forgotten that the Dark Hour actually existed, until his TV shut down and everything was tinted in an eerie green light.

"Crap." the boy muttered. "Just as it was getting interesting. What am I supposed to do for an hour?"

That's when Roxas remembered that it had been some time since he had last written into his journal. It was a bad habit of his not to write into his journal daily. Granted not every day something important happened, but sometimes he forgot to write some important things down. The nobody had been looking for his journal for five minutes, until he remembered he didn't have it anymore. Riku must have taken it from him, before Roxas was imprisoned into the computer. The nobody growled, unconsciously summoning his keyblades.

"I swear next time he won't catch me off guard." The nobody swore to himself. "Alright, better make a note. I need a new-"

 ***CRASH***

The sound of metal being crushed made the boy jump in place. He quickly ran out to his balcony and looked down. To his surprise he found one of those "wrestler shadows" outside of Tartarus and practicing punches against a car.

 _I thought they didn't appear outside! Whatever, I need to stop that thing!_

Running inside, Roxas quickly donned his robe, which at least had some defensive capabilities. He left his chain on the nightstand though.

Quickly Roxas ran towards the balcony and without even looking, he jumped over the railing. The cloaked figure landed on another car, perfectly putting a huge dent on the top of the car he landed on. It still hurt a little in the knees. The sound of Roxas' landing got the attention of the shadow. The thing didn't waste any time. It ran up to the nobody and threw a punch at him. Roxas, who had still been recovering from his fall, barely managed to jump away and landed on the street.

The nobody was ready for another attack, but instead of charging at him, the shadow was surrounded by a red mist. The human like monster struck a pose and was surrounded by a red light for a second. The nobody wondered what happened, but charged none the less. The shadow did the same, causing fists and swords to collide. Roxas grunted. The tip of both of his swords somehow didn't pierce through the skin of his opponent. The nobody was pushed bag and received a rather hard kick into the stomach. The cloaked figure crashed into the wall on the other side of the street. Grunting in pain Roxas got up. His eyes widened as the shadow charged at him again. He managed to block the strike with both of his swords and this time it was him who pushed his opponent back. The nobody followed with a series of slashes, which had been proven deadly to most simple minded opponents in the past. Only this time it didn't. Every attack he pulled off was repelled somehow. The shadow appeared to laugh for second, before it grabbed Roxas on the head and threw him back to the car.

"AHHH! OW!" _And just the other day I complained on how easy these things are to fight…_

"Alright" Roxas said, getting back up "what do you say to this?!" he shouted, pointing both keyblades at his opponent. Two fireballs flew towards his opponent, who jumped to the side. What the shadow didn't know was that those balls had ballistic capabilities. Not perfect, but enough to adjust their flight and cause two huge explosions. It was the shadow's turn to be thrown into the wall. This time the wall was destroyed and partially collapsed on the masked wrestler.

Seeing as magic seemed to work, Roxas prepared another spell to finish the thing off, but was interrupted by a voice shouting: "What are you doing?!"

Startled, Roxas stopped channeling the magic and turned his head. On the far end of the road stood a boy with short white hair, wearing some kind of red, white uniform, Roxas wasn't sure. The shadow used the distraction to charge at the cloaked Nobody. Too late he noticed that his opponent recovered and took another hit to the chest.

The boy quickly ran to the two fighting forces and took out what appeared to be a gun. It had the letters "S.E.E.S" engraved in it. The boy held the thing against his forehead and shouted: "Persona!"

The sound of glass shattering could be heard. Blue shards shot out of the boy's head and a blond haired, human like, wearing silver armor, appeared. The Persona channeled it's other self's magic and summoned a small lightning bolt onto the shadow. However aside from letting out a growl, the attack didn't appear to do much. The shadow's attention certainly was drawn to the boy, who gritted his teeth upon seeing the attack not doing much. His persona had disappeared at this point. The silver haired pointed the "gun" at his forehead again, but didn't came to summon his persona again. An explosion occurred right behind the shadows back and without much grace, it died.

Roxas found himself pointing his keyblade at the stranger, who was one of those "persona users". It certainly had been different to what the nobody actually expected. The somebody stared back at the hooded figure, his face hard.

"Who are you?" he asked.

Roxas was about to reply, when he remembered he didn't have his chain.

 _That was close. Urrgh…._

The only "response" that came out of the nobody, was some grunting, as he now felt just how much damage the shadow had done.

"Whoa, are you okay?" the stranger was about to approach Roxas, however was stopped when he saw the hoodie raising the keyblade over himself. Green leaves and yellow flowers surrounded Roxas for a second, before disappearing. Immediately he felt better.

"Wait, how-? What was that?" the white haired asked.

Roxas didn't answer. He dismissed his keyblades, startling the persona user even more. The nobody outstretched his hand and within a second a corridor of darkness had formed. Before the white haired boy could react, Roxas had jumped through the portal, which then disappeared.


End file.
